Betsafe

Boasting over 400,000 customers spread over 100 countries, Betsafe has seen considerable success since its launch in 2006. Owned by Safepay and provided by Ongame Network, Betsafe is based in Malta. While the company is relatively young, the site offers a complete set of gambling services from bookmaking to poker and a casino. While the betting service has a list of active odds on the home page (as is common on bookmaking sites), there is no dominant focus on any of the main services.

Promotions:

A reasonable set of promotion offers are available for those signing up to poker on Betsafe, but unfortunately the offering diminishes considerably for the other services. New promotions are released for poker each month, always keeping the fun fresh. Currently two main promotions are being advertised; the March Races and Gumball 3000. Players who make it to the top few hundred positions on the leaderboards will share in a $100,000 prize pool and Gumball 3000 packages (a cash prize coupled with a chance to play in the Gumball poker tournament).

Registration bonuses are surprisingly flexible compared to competing sites. New players have the option of choosing between copper, bronze, silver, gold and diamond bonus packages. These scale from $25 all the way up to a $2000 bonus. The flipside, of course, is that the higher your package choice, the more player points you will have to earn in order to unlock it. A time limit of 29 days is in place and the amount must be cleared before then. A minimum deposit of $1000 is required for the diamond package- no small order. These promotions are certainly of a reasonable quality but it’s a shame that poker gets the most out of them.

Sports Betting:

Sports betting options are the first thing you’ll notice about the Betsafe home page. The site layout itself is exceptional; a red, black and white colour scheme dominates the style and it works very well indeed. A simple and uncluttered tabs list will lead you to whatever service you’re looking for on the site. Betting services are prominent on the home page but you’ll also find large links to poker and the casino beneath the tabs bar.

First you’ll have to register, though, and you’ll find a large open account button at the top of the page. The form will appear in the main browser page without any aggravating popups. The details requested are all what you’d expect and there aren’t any unexpected questions. It should only take a minute or two to enter your details and register; once this is done you’ll be taken straight to the deposit page. A glance at the top of the window will show you that you’re logged in and so you can enter your deposit details after having a nose around if that suits you better.

The list of available odds is comprehensive and you will likely find something to interest you here. Everything from football to politics to martial arts is up for betting on. An interesting addition on top of all of the expected features is the option to suggest an odds idea of your own. Popular ones even stand a chance of become a real odds.

Poker:

The poker offering on Betsafe can be played either in your browser or as a downloaded program. The in browser version functions as a popup and runs smoothly. The red and black style carries over into the game and the lobby is well designed, if a little heavy on lists. Demo games are available if you want to get some practice in first. Unfortunately entering a game will open yet another popup which can be a bit too much clutter. The poker rooms themselves are well designed and easy to navigate. Game customisations options are very limited in the browser version but that’s what the downloadable client is for, right?

Oddly, the downloaded version of the game doesn’t really have that much more in the way of features when compared to the browser version. In fact, the downloaded lobby is practically identical to the browser game and has little in the way of options. Thankfully the browser version is of a good standard so if you don’t mind the popup poker rooms you can forget about the downloadable client completely.

Casino

Unlike the poker from Betsafe, the casino doesn’t bother with a downloadable version and it’s all run in the browser. The list of games itself is a little too spread out and the games aren’t heavily advertised. In contrast, the games themselves are very well presented and easy to get used to. There is a guide for new players, if required. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an option for trying out any of the games in a play for fun mode.

Payment Options

Deposit options are neatly laid out as large icons on the payments page. The list isn’t huge but it’s certainly enough. Your choices include Visa, MasterCard, Entropay, bank transfer, Neteller, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy and gift vouchers. An impressive list of accepted currencies accompanies this, giving you a lot of options for depositing money.

Conclusion

The service offered by Betsafe is a complete one with few gaps. If you’re looking for a gambling provider that offers betting, poker and a casino then you will find Betsafe to be a good choice. There are some problems- the promotions aren’t all that they could be and the downloadable poker client isn’t all that impressive. The help service is good and a guaranteed 15 minute response time is in place (and you get 10 euros if they don’t live up to this). Betsafe is a well rounded offering that would benefit from a few upgrades.